The Smart family were a long line of doctors and surgeons. John Cass Sharp was the son of surgeon, George Sharp (1790 – 1855) of Hutton Buscel and Isabella Harrison (1778 – 1865) from Easingwold. He was born in Hutton Buscel on 10 December 1815 and on leaving school he was articled to his father before moving to Guy’s Hospital in London.
In 1837 he was admitted Licentiate of the Apothecary Hall, however shortly after he had an accident whilst performing a dissection, and it was thought it would curtail his career,. However, John wasn’t going to be defeated and he went on to study at Paris and Heidelberg where he qualified as a doctor in 1838. On returning to England, he was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons, and five years later as a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians; after qualifying he moved to Leeds as a Physician with an interest in Homeopathy.
Whilst in Leeds John met Mabel Ellerby Gray, marrying her in 1843 at Chapel Allerton. Their first son Francis Gray Smart was born in Leeds in 1844, John then set up a practice at Huntriss Row in Scarborough.
Their second son George Edward Smart was born in 1850 at Scarborough, followed by their only daughter, Margaret in 1853. In the 1860’s he moved his family to Tunbridge Wells, where John and his son Francis practised together. When Francis married in 1886 John retired and moved to the Manor House at Combe Hay, Somerset, where George Edward was a gentleman farmer.
John Cass was visiting his sister in July 1894 at Scarborough when he collapsed in the street (Westborough) and died suddenly on the 14 July; he is buried at Hutton Buscel. Mabel died at Combe Hay in 1908 and is buried at Tunbridge Wells.
Frank’ Francis Gray Smart was the first son of John Cass Sharp and Mabel Ellerby Gray, he was born in Leeds; studied to become a physician at Cambridge after which he joined his father in Tunbridge Wells. Frank married a widow, Marion Pender Jones-Gibb nee Duncanson on 12 January 1886 at Paddington, London. They set up home in Tunbridge Wells, where Frank became the founder of the Tunbridge Wells Homeopathic Hospital; Frank was a keen photographer and coin collector. He died on 7th April 1913 a month after Marion.
By the late 1920’s a bequest left by Francis was being acted upon, as eight acres of land off Scalby Road was developed into the Dr Smart Homes opening in 1931. In the 1950’s a bequest from George Edward Smart (Frank’s brother who died in 1939) contributed to the building of further care homes in Scarborough on Stepney Drive, the George Edward Smart home was named Combe Hay House after the estate owned by him in Somerset and opened in 1957; this was followed in 1967 by another building on the same site, Fawcett House.
Visit :-
Dr Smart Homes plaque above the entrance gate on Scalby Road
Dr Smart Homes off Woodland Grove, Combe Hay House, Stepney Drive
